What Pain is mine
that runs so deepyet barely seems
to touch the rocky course of life.For surely those
in troubled depthsface far a greater
challenge of the heart.

Along the running
flow of timedid I pour languid
pools of peace.Or did I choose
an altered courseto dry in stagnant
ponds of doubt.

And did the whisperings
of my soulnourish hearts that
sought to drink.Or did the tricklings
of my fearserode banks of strength
that led me on.

The river does not
seem to seekor even care to
know its source.It chooses only
to embracein churning arms,
to grow as one.

Should I then care
to stem the tideor cease the running
flow of truth.And judge the essence
of my soulcompared to breath
not drawn of me.

If you in time should
round a curveto find me building
dams of doubtInvesting power
borne of meupon hearts whose
souls are merely lost.

Fear not that I have
lost my way,been forced to veer
on altered courseOr silenced by the
sun parched lipsof hungry souls'
unopened mouths

Just listen in the
noiseless depthsand quietude of
poolsTo know the gentle
silence therepreserves for all
my hidden source.

THE ORANG ASLI say we cannot destroy
them without ourselves being destroyed. To illustrate this, they recount
a hoary legend that warns of divine retribution against those who would
drive them from their birthplace, their beloved pusat negeri - for
they were indeed born in the navel of the nation, in the verdant foothills
of Gunung Raja - only a few miles, as the eagle flies, from the site of
the proposed Selangor Dam.

And how would "divine retribution"
destroy those who seek to displace them from their rightful home? Invariably,
the totem naga is invoked. The dragon, guardian of the rivers, would
roar in primordial rage and return to the ocean depths, its thrashing tail
wreaking havoc all the way. The very earth will quake and fill with swirling
floodwaters, tall buildingswill shake and crumble into the
mud. A deliciously apocalyptic vision, no doubt, but can it be translated
into scientific terms?

Quite easily in fact. If you allow
that the dragon is how "primitive" folk describe electromagnetic phenomena
generated by disturbances in the earth's magnetic field, then the Orang
Asli doomsday scenario translates as RIS. That's technical jargon for Reservoir
Induced Seismicity - where the sheer weight of a large body of water exerts
enough pressure on the tectonic shield or plate boundaries to trigger earth
tremors where none have been known to occur.

Not very much is known about these
quirky quakes, except that only too often they have been completely ignored
or overlooked by overconfident builders of large dams. (Any structure over
15 metres is considered "large" which qualifies the proposed Selangor Dam
as "titanic" at 115 metres.)

And, of course, water is a persistent
and persuasive agent that works its way over, under, around and through
"solid" bedrock in utterly mysterious ways. The notion of solidity or stability,
we now know, is purely that - no more than a notion. If a 250-year-old
bank canspontaneously collapse as a
result of an earthquake 11,000 miles away, what more a500-million-year-old embankment?
Especially when you have irate dragons on the loose...

Okay, I'll grant that a part of
me is perversely fascinated by catastrophe and disaster. How often have
I amused myself with archival footage of cities, islands, continents that
have caved in spectacularly upon themselves in a matter of hours, minutes,
even seconds. If half of Kuala Lumpur went the way of Kobe as a result
of human greed, ambition andstupidity, I'd consider it poetic
justice. But, oh no! I have so many dear friends who live there, including
my daughter and my... WAIT! WAIT! CANCEL THE CURSE!

I don't want to see anything like
that ever happen. That's why I'm determined that such a colossal calamity
will not come to pass. Better a wicked and devious administration crumble
and disappear from view - than an entire indigenous tribe, or a sweet little
town called Kuala Kubu Baru ("Baru" because it had to be rebuilt from the
ground up after a dam burstin 1883)
- or, heaven forbid, a whole section of the Federal capital.

Obviously, the Orang Asli believe
they're God's chosen people. Same as the Jews. Or the Japanese. Or the
Eskimos. Or the Chinese. Or the Malays. Or the Kurds. Or the Turks. Or
the Serbs. Or the Croats. But, personally, if I had to repopulate a planet,
I might decide to overlook the Serbs or the... whoops, let's not get racist
now! Anyhow, I'd definitely include the Orang Asli as they are truly lovable
beings - no matter how exasperating they can be at times. Much better a
world full of half-naked, laughing, nature-loving animists than a battlefield
full of deadly God-fearing killer-androids programmed by a subsidiary of
Microsoft.

Oh well, I shall have to issue a
statement on this controversial issue. Actually, there isn't that much
controversy. We're confronted with a business-minded political establishment
that's gotten so comfortable with dirty deals it no longer knows when or
how to come clean. Where all arguments fail, FEAR will succeed. So why
can't I inject a small dose ofgood old-fashioned fear into the
campaign to save the last bit of natural beauty in Selangor from the Beast
of Bolehland? I'd much rather see LOVE of beauty and truth overcoming the
fear of bloody taps in KL and PJ running dry.

Look, all you folks in Bangsar and
Damansara Heights, you can afford to fix your roof gutters and store rainwater
for washing your three or four cars, watering your two hundred pot plants,
and as for your swimming pools... er, why not convert them into home gyms
where you can work out and swim in pools of your own hard-earned sweat?

As for all you factory owners who
have been siphoning off water from the mains for years... I'm afraid you'll
have to collect and store rainwater in giant tanks from now on... or it's
the rubber hose treatment for you! Enema of the people!

And let's not shy away from naming
names, folks. Everybody knows the biggest culprit is Lee Kee Kok alias
Paip Bocor. Thirty-five years old and the bugger's still passing water in public, about
10 million gallons a day (hey, this is just a ballpark figure, don't hold
me to it, okay?)

Right, are you ready for the serious
bit? Here we go...

TECHNOLOGY WILL NOT SOLVE OUR WATER OR SMOG
PROBLEMS.ONLY HUMILITY AND TRUTHFULNESS WILL DO THE
TRICK.

I issue this statement on my own
behalf, and not as a representative of any group or organization. I am
resolutely against any attempt to solve our serious environmental problems
- of which recurring smog and water shortages (despite worsening floods)
are merely symptoms - through heavy-handed bureaucratic schemes and club-footedtechnological ploys.

Never mind the goddam EIA. These
multi-million-ringgit "professional" reports are a wordscreen for a lot
of nasty unspeakable projects that I prophesy will soon be totally banned
from this precious planet, as more and more of us awaken to the terrible
truth.

What an EIA does is to soften the
crushing impact of reckless "development" projects. TheEIA
is very much like an inventory of potential damage caused by warfare: you
might lose a few toes, half your brain, most of your vision, your hearing,
your sanity, etc - BUT if you follow certain SAFETY PRECAUTIONS, you might
escape with only half the above injuries!

The point is: WE DON'T WANT TO GO
TO WAR AT ALL! What industrialization has done to the environment is essentially
a declaration of war against natural beauty and simple, honest values.
That way lies a dead-end future of merciless grey grimness unfit for organic lifeforms,
only state-owned androids.

Building yet another colossal dam
to feed our insatiable appetite for "growth" is definitely asign
of derangement. We have been forcefed - and a few have greedily swallowed
- Mahathir's "vision" of unfettered industrial development and economic
expansion. But how many have dared to publicly question the sanity or wisdom
of this management policy? Andwhen a few
voices in the wilderness cried out in warning, were they heeded or even
heardamidst the clamour of the stock exchange
and the growing traffic jams?

When water catchment areas have
been rudely denuded and despoiled, and hills carved upfor
high-rise housing, do we expect to live happily after on this earth? Surely
Mother Earthwill seek ways in which she can
rid herself of this terrible infestation called humanity, surely she will
find ways to alert us to the grave errors of our perception, so that we
can return to a loving, cherishing relationship with her (instead of exploiting
her and robbing her of resources meant for all living things, and seeing
her beauty as no more than booty for our taking).

My friends, the inclement weather
changes - wet months getting wetter and hot months getting hotter and cold
countries getting colder - are part of the phenomenon called Global Warming.
It is largely caused by human insensitivity to the miraculous spectrum
of life thatconstitutes our biosphere. "Modern
Man" suffers from acute anthropocentrism - a viewpoint focused exclusively
on human need and greed - and acute anthropocentrism will eventually destroy
the whole earth. Our needs are amply provided for by Mother Nature, as
the wise ones say, but not our greed.

So our recent plague of environmental
problems is basically an indicator of our excesses. To further abuse and
exploit the environment certainly will not help - no matter how clever or
inventive or EXPENSIVE the technology may be.

What will help is to reassess our
management policies and national aspirations with complete truthfulness.
We would immediately recognize that we have reached the point where national
ego pride could ruin us and genuine humility just might save us.

Humility means acknowledging how
little we know about the universe; and humility comes from realising that
nature's beauty and mystery are worth infinitely more than our perverse obsession
with illusory fame and fortune.

Being able to breathe clean, fresh
air and admire the distant hills every day may not get usinto
the Guinness Book of World Records or the Who's Who of the Banana
Republics - but it will certainly get us closer to regaining heaven
on earth.

So stop midway through this frantic
and futile feast of fools and look up at the ethereal clouds in the sky,
and remember why we chose to be born on this exquisite and unique gem of
a planet. Was it to puff ourselves up with toadish pompousness and amass
a hoardof dragon's gold we could never bequeath
to our grandchildren? Because our grandchildren would be too busy turning
into cockroaches, rats, and other lifeforms that can survive or even thrive
in ugly and polluted environments.

Or did we come here to experience
the separation of matter from spirit, and to learn how they can be harmoniously
fused again? For this lesson would teach us that the outer reflects the
inner. Where there is drought in the external reality, it means our souls
are parched of feelings, love has dried up. Where there are landslides
and flash floods, it means our integrity is decaying and our emotions are
murky and raging out of control, bursting the banks of tranquillity. And
where the air is thick with greasy crud and black with factory soot, it
means our thoughts are indecent (i.e., mechanical, pornographic) and our
spirit is exhausted.

These are not - as an official propagandist
might have you believe - the essential hallmarks of progress, the few broken
eggs of omelette-making. Material comfort and spiritual distress are not
the sine qua non of success. If truth be told, these are the unmistakable
symptoms of acute mismanagement pulling the wool over the eyes of - or,
rather, shearing the wool off - a woefully disinformed and misguided citizenry.

Don't be fooled or bullied by businessmen
and politicians into believing that ideals and principles arefor lily-livered dreamers and bleeding-hearts.
Ideals and principles are our navigational beacons through the foggy night
of never-knowing-for-sure. Businessmen andpoliticians
prefer to bandy about FACTS and FIGURES. They call it being REALISTIC,
being PRACTICAL, being LOGICAL, being RATIONAL. "Hey, don't be so
emotional," they're fond of admonishing individuals like me.

Well, my friends, if you think the
world is run by businessmen and politicians and there isn'tmuch
you and I can do to change the situation - you're dead wrong! In the first
place, they are not running the world - they're RUINING it! And in the
second place, every bit of POWER they appear to wield they STOLE from YOU.

Now, to reclaim your POWER - and
your FUTURE - and your SENSE OF MEANING and PURPOSE - all you have to do
is stand your ground and say:NO WAY! YOU
ARE NOT GOING TO BUILD ANOTHER STUPID BLOODY DAM JUST TO COVERUP
YOUR INCOMPETENCE, YOUR INEFFICIENCY AND YOUR INBRED CORRUPTION. YOU ARE
GOING TO START LISTENING TO THOSE WHO CAN STILL TALK STRAIGHT - INSTEAD
OF THROWING THEM ALL IN JAIL! - AND CARRY OUT THE TRUE WISHES OF WE THE
PEOPLE.

We no longer desire to be permanent
debt-slaves of an inaccessible power elite ("Boss adameeting!").
We shall no longer pick up the bill for your deadly sins. We are prepared
to giveyou ONE LAST CHANCE to admit your
mistakes (go on, say "Sorry lah!" just once with feeling) and then call
for suggestions from the public as to what needs to be done about everything:
our air, our water, our legal system, our police force, our news media,
our housing policy, our hideous track record of moral duplicity, and our
utter contempt for truth, never mind the environment!

I'm absolutely sure the very first
suggestion will be: DO AWAY WITH OBSOLETE LAWS FROM THE DARK AGES LIKE
THE ISA AND THE OSA. Then we can feel free at last to discuss decent, intelligent,
eco-friendly and non-destructive ways to resolve our problems without being
harassed by zomboid goons.

In fact, you may find we actually
have very few problems in this country. I'd venture that they can all fit
into a single courtroom and be tried for conspiracy to befuddle and bamboozle
the public! And the most fitting "punishment" would be for the entire cabinet
to live for two whole years in an Orang Asli village on RM500 a month.
They will each be issued a 20-year-old 80 c.c. motorbike - and no petrol
allowance.

The Orang Asli, of course, will
be paid ministers' salaries during the exchange period to make up for the
inconvenience of having to teach a bunch of back-biting batik-shirted baboons
the basics of honest living.